This invention relates to a toy which allows a part of an article such as, but not exclusively, a scaled down model of a person, an animal or the like, to be moved without any direct physical contact being applied thereto.
Conventionally it is known for toys to have parts which are movable and this allows the toys to move and perform actions which renders the toys more life like and thus more attractive to children. This attractiveness is further enhanced if the movement of the article arises without the child actually having to touch the movable parts of the article. The movement of the parts of the article can be operated by a mechanical mechanism or by a clockwork mechanism, which typically has to be wound up to initiate movement. Both of these mechanisms have the disadvantage that they comprise expensive components and they do not interact realistically with an environment in which they are placed and/or perform different actions in different environments. In addition, such mechanisms are unsuitable for using in small articles, thereby limiting the size of the articles that can be provided with moving parts. It is also known to use the attraction and/or repulsion of magnets to cause movement of articles or components but a typical problem is that such use and movement only results in a direct correlation between the extent and direction of movement of the first magnet being mirrored by the extent and direction of movement of the second magnet which can quickly become dull to children using the toy.
It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a toy which includes an article which has movable parts to allow the same to perform one or more actions at different points in an environment, under the influence of a control magnet and for said movement, if desired, to be proportional to the movement of the control magnet.
A further aim is to provide movement means for the toy which allows control of movement of parts of a toy from a position remote to the article and also to provide movement means with mechanical advantage thereby increasing the scope of movement of the article.
A yet further aim is to provide movement means for a toy including a small article, the article being too small to enable conventional movement mechanisms to be used.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a toy, said toy comprising at least one article with at least a first magnet, and movement means acting on at least a second magnet, said at least one article having one or more movable parts to provide movement of one or more parts of said article and wherein the movement means is positioned out of direct contact from the article and is arranged to impart movement of said one or more moveable parts thereby providing animation of the one or more parts of the article, as a result of movement of one of the first or second magnets with respect to the other of the first or second magnets.
The movement to be imparted on the article occurs when the said first and second magnets are within their respective magnetic fields.
Typically the article and movement means are integral components of the toy and are provided, in one embodiment, attached to a playbase or other components to form the toy.
In one embodiment the movement means imparts linear motion to the one or more movable joints. In this embodiment the movement means is actuated linearly with respect to the article to produce linear motion of the article. In a further embodiment the movement means can impart rotational motion to the one or more movable joints. In this embodiment the movement means can be actuated linearly and/or rotationally to result in linear and/or rotational motion of one or more parts of the article.
In one embodiment one of the at least two magnets can be moved about and/or along multiple axes simultaneously giving rise to a greater range of movement of the one or more movable joints and results in expressive and lifelike movement.
Preferably the at least first magnet of the article is located in the one or more movable joints with a magnetic polar axis perpendicular to the joint axis such that rotation of the magnet by the movement means results in rotation of a part of the article.
Typically movement of the at least second magnet in the movement means imparts motion of the at least first magnet in the article via the interaction of the magnetic fields of the at least two magnets, and thus results in movement of said one or more parts of the article.
Preferably the at least second magnet is arranged to impart motion to the at least first magnet by attraction and/or repulsion.
In one embodiment the polarity of the magnets are arranged such that the movement of one magnet achieves proportional movement in the other.
The at least first magnet can be positioned in a rotatable joint such that rotation of the same via the movement means results in rotation of a single part of the article. Alternatively, the at least first magnet can be positioned in a rotatable joint such that rotation of the same via the movement means results in rotation of more than one part of the article.
In one embodiment the article is in the form of a person and the rotatable joint is provided at the neck such that rotation of the first magnet in the rotatable joint, via movement of the movement means, results in rotation of the head.
In a further embodiment the article is in the form of a person and the rotatable joint is provided between the arms of the person such that rotation of the first magnet in the rotatable joint, via the movement means, results in rotation of the arms.
In one embodiment the at least one rotatable joint of the article is a ball joint and the first magnet is located in the same to allow a component to move in two axes simultaneously. In a further embodiment the rotatable joint is in the form of a cylindrical joint and the first magnet is located in the same. Typically the first magnet is mounted on a rotatable spindle such that its polar axis is at variance, such as 60 degrees, to the spindle axis so that when rotated in the vertical, the magnetic field and hence article, as well as rotating is caused to pitch up and down 30 degrees. This action imparts simultaneous movement in the two planes in the first magnet.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for a toy, said apparatus comprising a play base, at least one article which is movable about an upper surface of said play base using control means, and movement means, said at least one article having at least a first magnet located in one or more movable joints and said movement means having at least a second magnet and wherein said movement means is positioned remotely and out of contact with the article and is arranged to impart movement of said one or more movable joints thereby providing animation of the at least one article, by movement of the article and/or movement means with respect to each other.
Preferably the control means is provided with at least a third magnet and imparts movement of the article across the play base via interaction with a magnet provided in the base of the at least one article. Typically the at least third magnet of the control means contacts the underside of the upper surface of the play base and the magnet in the base of the article contacts the upper surface of the play base.
In one embodiment the movement means is provided adjacent the article. Typically the play base is provided with objects thereon in which the movement means can be located and/or hidden from view.
Typically the at least one article is moved across the surface of the play base using the control means, and the one or more movable joints on the article(s) are actuated to move when the at least first magnet of the article is a pre-determined distance from the at least second magnet of the movement means, and the interaction of the movement means magnet and the at least first magnet of the article induces motion.
Typically the apparatus for the toy comprises a number of movement means located at different points on the play base.
Several articles can also be caused to be animated in accordance with the invention by a single common movement means.
In a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided a toy, said toy comprising at least one article with at least a first magnet positioned therein, and movement means with at least a second magnet positioned therein, said at least one article having one or more movable parts to provide movement of one or more parts of said article when the said first and second magnets magnetically influence each other and wherein actuation of the movement means in a first direction results in movement of the part or parts of the article in a direction other than the said first direction.
In one example, actuation in a linear direction causes rotational movement of the part of the article.
In this aspect there is a clear difference from prior art in that there is no direct relationship in terms of direction of movement, between the direction of movement of the actuation for the movement means and the direction of movement created on the part or parts of the article. This therefore adds to the unexpected and surprising nature of the toy to a child.